


Thicker Than Water

by Celaeno



Category: Marvel (Comics), Scarlet Spider (Comics), Spider-Man (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 06:52:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1103784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celaeno/pseuds/Celaeno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the MC2 ‘verse, Kaine rescues baby May and gets her back to her parents, later serving as a grumpy, grumpy source of help. In 616, Kaine’s wound up in Houston and ended up as a grumpy, grumpy superhero, and with some amazing friends. This is an attempt to smush the two continuities together into something with the greatness of both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thicker Than Water

It was the goddamn Parker sense of responsibility again. He was sure of it. It had led him to do all sorts of stupid things before for people he didn't even know, much less have...genetic  ties to.

(Family wasn't a word he would use. He might be Peter Parker's clone, but even with Peter calling him 'brother', he wasn't sure the title was apt. It was too... _familiar_ for the relationship that they had.)

The point was, that annoying sense of needing to do _something_ had kicked in. And he had followed it, again.

At least this time it failed to end in crashed cars, escaped monstrosities, and/or a rodeo showdown versus a drunken armadillo man.

...Scratch that, having to deal with a drunk again probably would have been easier. The _important_ thing was, it was over, it was done with, the baby had been dropped off with her parents and he could get back to Houston and its own unique brand of insanity. Such as it was. New York still seemed to have more than its fair share, and Kaine was happy to leave it there. Just dealing with his...friends? Sidekicks? People who wouldn't leave him the hell alone? was enough.

He was just going to get to the airport, get on the plane, and hopefully drink himself to the point where he forgot he had a long and complicated history in New York, much less a niece.

(And this time, he swore, getting drunk would take more than three beers.)

\---  
  
Again, it had only taken three beers. And he still remembered he had a niece.

_And_ now he had a blinding hangover.

The one upside was that apparently, this wasn't only expected, it was planned for. Annabelle had been waiting for him once he arrived, with an offering of an aspirin, some water, and a small pillow to shove over his head on the drive back to the hotel.

"So, how was it?"

Kaine groaned into his pillow, more of a growl than anything. He was hungover and didn't want to talk. Even if he _wasn't_ hungover, he wouldn't want to talk. This was private, stupid business.

"Bad."

Annabelle didn't look away from traffic-with Houston traffic, that was kind of like asking for death-but she did smile. "'This made me have feelings' bad, or actual bad?"

" _Bad,_ " he repeated, gripping the pillow and pulling it down more tightly. Maybe he would smother. It would be one way out of this conversation that didn't involve opening the door and flinging himself out at traffic.

"So, feelings, then."

"There was nothing with feelings!"

Kaine had to free one hand from the pillow to grip the seat as Annabelle swerved through traffic. "Sorry, I couldn't hear what you said through the 'I am a tortured superhero without feelings'. And the pillow."

He took off the pillow entirely to squint at her, cursing the daylight. What had possessed him to take a flight that arrived early in the morning? ...Right, the burning desire to get out of New York and never come back. "There's nothing to talk about. I got something done, and I'm never dealing with it again." Then he stuffed the pillow back over his face. Maybe if he took deep breaths into it, asphyxiation would come sooner.

He could _hear_ the continued smile in her tone. "You know, you'd be better off if you actually talked about what's on your mind more, instead of saving it for when there's an emergency. Also, save your angry hangover for the hotel. Donald and Wally are teaching Aracely to play poker."

Kaine ripped off the pillow again to look at her in disbelief. "They're _what_?"

\-----

Judging by the pile of chips on her side of the table, teaching Aracely poker had been a mistake on Donald and Wally's parts.

Wally just gave Kaine a half-hearted shrug as he looked to him for explaination. "She's a fast learner."

"She also has powers, what did you think would happen?" This was not what he had expected to come back to. ...It wasn't the _worst_ thing he could have come back to, but the idea that his mind-reading, bizarre power-possessing, not-sidekick was being taught how to play poker wasn't one he had expected.

Or was clear-headed enough to deal with. Kaine wiped his hand across his face. He would've stuffed the pillow across it again, but somewhere between parking and the elevator, the pillow had become lost. He was missing it now. "Just don't take her to an actual casino. _Please_."

"We'd have to go out of state for that," Wally said as he turned his attention back to his cards. "Casinos are illegal in Texas."

"Come to think of it, I always _did_ kind of want to go to Vegas." Donald sounded thoughtful.

"VEGAS!" Aracely sounded like she backed the idea completely. Of course, Aracely could be counted on to back pretty much any idea that involved travel, food, and/or him in a stupid hat.

(He was never going to forgive them for the rodeo debacle.)

Once again, Kaine found himself wishing for the pillow. "Plan a Vegas trip without her. Or _me_. I'm going to bed." He shuffled up the stairs, leaving the poker game-and hopefully, all the stupidity of today, yesterday, and his whole trip behind him.

\-----  
Once Kaine had left, Donald looked to Annabelle expectantly. "Did he tell you anything at all?"

"Nothing," she said with a shrug, before pulling up a chair. "I got 'bad' and that it's something he doesn't want to talk about, but that's normal for him."

"It's because of his niece," Aracely broke in, squinting a little as she looked over her cards. "He rescued her and talked to his clone brother. It was awkward and they don't really get along that well, and he doesn't want to think of her as a niece but does anyway." Then she paused and laid down her cards. "Royal flush!"

Everyone else turned to look at her, blinking in silence for a moment. Aracely just beamed, pleased with her hand. Finally, Donald broke the silence. "Did you say _niece_?"

\------  
  
"Tell me about her!"

"About _who_?" It was no longer so godawfully bright-seeming, and the hangover had cleared up, but that hadn't put Kaine into a better mood. If anything, being clear-headed enough to understand exactly who Aracely was talking about made it worse.

And judging from her expression, she didn't believe him playing dumb for a minute. "Your _niece_! Is she cute? Do you think you'll see her again? Why didn't you tell us you were going to get her? I could have helped!"

Kaine opted for the easiest way to deal the questions: ignoring them. "I'm watching TV. Go count all the money you won."

"You're watching the weather channel. Tell me more about your niece!"

There was no way to get out of this, short of flinging himself out the window. ...Which he _could_ do, but he wasn't wearing his costume at the moment and she'd just follow him out, anyway. He settled for leaning back on the couch and staring up at the ceiling. "She's not really my niece."

"That's how you think of her."

"She's _not_." He kept his eyes focused on the ceiling. "We're not actually family. It's complicated." For a moment, he let himself glance quickly over at Aracely; the look she was giving him was skeptical.

"She's your niece. You wouldn't go to New York for any baby."

"Did you notice I'm doing a lot of stupid things for people I don't know lately? This is like that." Maybe if he went back to focusing on the Weather Channel. (It was going to be hot, apparently. Considering that they were in Houston, this seemed a little like announcing the sky would remain blue and the Earth would keep turning.) "Besides, you wouldn't have wanted to come. It was mostly boring." A lot of following and watching from rooftops until timing was right, although there'd be...interesting moments.

Aracely's skeptical expression didn't change. In fact, she threw her hands up in the air. "You said I shouldn't come last time, too! And that was great! There were mutants, and you talked to spiders, and I had a costume, and we had a big superhero fight that meant you and Wolverine fought a goddess-"

"I almost got skewered by Wolverine. I _still_ might get skewered by Wolverine."

"It was the best trip ever! Did you take you niece with you anywhere after you rescued her? Like a victory tour!"

"No, I took her back to-" Kaine sighed, finally looking back to Aracely. "If I tell you _some_ things about her, will you drop it?" Aracely nodded, watching him with the sort intense curiosity that made him wonder exactly _how_ long it would take would know everything. ...Everything plus a lot of excited Aracely commentary.  "All right. her name's May. She's not my niece, she's just...a baby that happens to _technically_ be related to me. She's too young to do much or get into anything, which was fine by me. I got her back to her parents and I left. That's all."

Her look didn't waiver. "That's all?"

"...And I might have punched a few people." If there had been a few especially _vicious_ punches, it was because he was annoyed at having to go out of his way and leave Houston again. That was it. "That's all. You would have been bored."

"It didn't _have_ to be boring. Next time you should take me." From her tone, it was clear that he was the sole source of it being boring. Or supposedly boring; he could tell she still didn't quite believe him. "You're at least going to visit her, right?"

" _Why_?"

"Because she's your niece." While it wasn't said, the 'you moron' in the tone was clear enough. "You're her uncle, that's what you do. And because you'll probably be the best uncle ever. Not everybody has an uncle that fights werewolves and Santas."

...She might have a point there. _Might_. But not enough of one to make him waiver. "Aracely, I'm _sure_ her father doesn't want me showing up and making things complicated."

"You're her uncle! It's not complicated at all!" Aracely prodded him a bit with a finger, earning an annoyed grunt. "You should at least _try_." Kaine scowled a bit, which just made her scowl back.  " _Kaine_."

He looked up at the ceiling again, which, judging by the change in posture he caught out of the corner of his eye, was taken as a sign of debate. "I'll...think about it."

Aracely tugged at his arm. "Think about it while we're on patrol. Come on, go suit up!"

Patrol. _We_. He still wasn't sure when Aracely had become a quasi-sidekick. He'd never _asked_ for a sidekick. (He'd never asked for a lot of things. It didn't stop them from happening.) "I still want to know where you _got_ that costume."

She grinned. "It's a great costume, isn't it?"

He waived her off. "I'll be ready in a few minutes. Shoo." Maybe she had a point. Maybe a good patrol would clear his head, get his mind off things. If nothing else, it was a ready excuse to hit somebody a lot.

\-----

As it turned out, hitting people a lot, while stress-relieving and good overall for Houston's crime rate, did little to take his mind off the baby. He blamed Aracely, particularly when he kept finding himself mulling things over at quiet points. (And once during Texas Hold 'Em with the rest of the group, which resulted in him losing fifty dollars and resolving to not brood in the middle of a poker game again.)

On the plus (arguably plus, he wasn't sure it counted as a _real_ plus) side, it gave him an idea. One that avoided contact with New York and his history there while still allowing him to say that he did have the baby's well-being in mind.

\-----

"Who do we know in Houston?" Peter turned the envelope over in his hands, frowning at it. There was a Texas address on it, but no name. It had been addressed to them, though, so it couldn't be a wrong delivery. "Any idea-" He turned-right, she was with May. He couldn't blame her for wanting to check up at random times, after everything they'd been through. Shrugging, he opened the envelope.

And was very, very surprised when several very, very large bills came out when he pulled out the letter. Peering into it showed that there were more inside. Blinking, he opened the letter-what _was_ this?

_Peter-_

_Consider this a start for the kid's college fund. Have her put it to good use. With any luck, this'll be last time she has anything to do with me, which is the best thing in the long run._   
_Just don't let her get a degree in genetics._

_Kaine_


End file.
